There was no late-night luck in Vegas for the Rockies.
Sean Sullivan gave Colorado an encouraging first look in his major league debut, and Cole Carrigg delivered the swing that briefly looked like it might define the night. But the lead did not hold. The Athletics answered Carrigg’s three-run homer with four unanswered runs, including the go-ahead run on a preventable throwing error, and beat the Rockies 6-4 on Friday at Las Vegas Ballpark.
The loss dropped the Rockies to 26-44, while the Athletics improved to 34-35.
Sullivan shows enough in debut
Sean Sullivan (No. 8 PuRP) became the sixth Rockies player to make his major league debut this season, and his outing ended after three scoreless innings due to illness. He allowed two hits, walked no one, and struck out two while throwing 33 of his 49 pitches for strikes. He generated 29 swings and five whiffs, topped out at 90.7 mph, and allowed just one hard-hit ball.
Sullivan built the outing around his four-seam fastball, throwing it 29 times for 59% of his pitch mix. He also used eight cutters, seven changeups, and five sweepers. The fastball averaged 87.6 mph, with the cutter at 83.2 mph, the changeup at 77.9 mph, and the sweeper at 75.6 mph. Against right-handed hitters, Sullivan used the fastball 61% of the time. Against left-handed hitters, he used it 56% of the time, with the sweeper becoming a bigger part of the plan at 22%.
The fastball was not overpowering, but Sullivan pounded the zone with it and forced Oakland to keep fighting it off. The clearest example came in the first inning against Colby Thomas. Sullivan fell behind 3-1, then threw eight straight four-seamers. Thomas swung through one to run the count full, fouled off six more, and then missed the 12th pitch of the at-bat, an 86.1 mph fastball, for Sullivan’s first major league strikeout.
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That was the first real moment of the debut. Sullivan did not win it with velocity. He won it by staying in the zone, trusting the fastball, and making Thomas prove he could finish the at-bat. Thomas never did.
The other defining sequence came in the second. Jonah Heim doubled off the base of the wall in left, driving an 85.7 mph four-seamer at 102.1 mph with a 20-degree launch angle and a projected distance of 355 feet. It was the first hit Sullivan allowed in the majors and the only hard-hit ball against him.
Sullivan came right back against Zack Gelof and ended the inning in three pitches. He started with an 84.2 mph cutter for a called strike, came back with an 82.3 mph cutter that Gelof tipped for strike two, then finished him with a 74.6 mph sweeper for a swinging strike.
Both strikeouts ended innings. That is the useful takeaway from Sullivan’s debut. He threw strikes, avoided walks, limited hard contact, and had a response when the A’s finally put pressure on him. It would have been good to see him go deeper, but three scoreless innings was a solid first look.
Rockies finally get to Jump
For five innings, Gage Jump looked like he was going to make the Rockies pay for their missed early chances.
Colorado had a chance to get to him right away. Kyle Karros singled through the left side in the first, and TJ Rumfield followed with a ground-ball single to right that moved Karros to third. But with runners on the corners and one out, Jump escaped. He struck out Hunter Goodman, then got Troy Johnston to line out to Henry Bolte in center field for the final out.
The Rockies put another runner on in the second when Braxton Fulford lined a 97.5 mph fastball to right field for a two-out single, then stole second on the next pitch. Jump again avoided damage, and from there he settled in. He retired 10 straight Rockies hitters and carried a 2-0 lead into the sixth after Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz went back-to-back in the fifth.
Then the Rockies jumped him.
Willi Castro opened the sixth by poking a single past Max Muncy at third base. Karros followed with louder contact, shooting a 95.2 mph fastball through the left side for a 104.3 mph single. Rumfield then worked a walk, loading the bases with nobody out and forcing Mark Kotsay to go to the bullpen.
That was the inning’s first turn. Jump had been cruising, but the Rockies finally got him out of the game and created the kind of pressure they had missed with their early traffic.
Justin Sterner entered to face Goodman and won the first matchup, striking out Goodman for his third strikeout of the night. That made the inning feel like it might become another missed opportunity. Johnston kept that from happening. After falling behind 0-2, Johnston lifted a deep fly ball to center field, plenty deep to score Castro from third. Karros also tagged and advanced to third, a smart read as the ball carried Bolte deeper into the outfield.
Then Cole Carrigg made sure the Rockies did not settle for just one run.
Carrigg attacked a first-pitch cutter from Sterner and drove it out to right-center for a three-run home run. Carrigg’s second career round-tripper turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 Rockies lead. The swing came off a 90.2 mph cutter and left the bat at 102.5 mph with a 34-degree launch angle.
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That closed the book on Jump, who was charged with three runs over five innings. He allowed five hits, walked one, struck out six, and threw 52 of his 75 pitches for strikes. His fastball carried the outing, accounting for 38 of his 75 pitches, and it averaged 97.2 mph while topping out at 99.2. He also mixed in 21 sliders, eight curveballs, seven changeups, and one sweeper.
Jump was excellent for long stretches. He generated 14 whiffs on 40 swings and controlled the middle innings after Colorado failed to convert its first two chances. But the sixth changed the line. Two singles and a walk created the jam, Johnston got the first run home, and Carrigg delivered the swing that finally broke through.
Bullpen gives the lead back
The Rockies had to piece the game together after Sullivan exited, and the first handoff worked. Jeff Criswell handled the fourth with a scoreless inning. He allowed one walk, struck out one, and topped out at 97.1 mph while mixing sliders, four-seamers, and changeups.
The fifth is where the game changed. Seth Halvorsen opened the inning by getting Muncy to line out and Bolte to strike out, but Langeliers broke the scoreless tie with two outs. Langeliers got a 98.8 mph fastball and drove it to center field, sending it 450 feet at 104.2 mph for his 18th home run of the season.
Kurtz followed with the bigger swing. After falling behind 2-0, Halvorsen got a swinging strike on a 98.3 mph fastball, then tried to finish the at-bat with a 90 mph splitter. Kurtz drove it 471 feet to right-center at 108.9 mph, giving Oakland back-to-back home runs and a 2-0 lead.
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Halvorsen walked Lawrence Butler before Zach Agnos entered and got Tyler Soderstrom to pop out in foul territory, keeping the inning at two runs. Halvorsen’s line closed at 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 HR.
The Rockies answered with four runs in the top of the sixth, but the lead did not last. Agnos walked Jacob Wilson to open the bottom half, then gave up a one-out single to Gelof. Muncy tied the game with a double to center, driving a 94.9 mph four-seamer 398 feet at 103.5 mph to score both runners.
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Agnos still had to get through Kurtz with runners on the corners and two outs. Kurtz had already hit the longest ball of the game, and he nearly did more damage. He drove a ball deep to center, but Carrigg tracked it down near the warning track to end the inning and keep the game tied, 4-4.
The seventh turned on a preventable mistake. Butler opened with a double to right off a 93 mph sinker, and Soderstrom followed with a walk. Agnos got Wilson on an infield fly and Carlos Cortes on a forceout, putting runners on the corners with two outs.
Cortes took off for second, and Goodman popped up from behind the plate, bluffing a throw to second. Butler broke down the line from third and got caught between bases. Goodman started him back toward third, but then spiked the throw to Karros. The ball skipped into the outfield, and Butler scored easily to give Oakland a 5-4 lead.
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It was the kind of self-inflicted play that changes a game. Goodman had Butler hung up and a chance to get the Rockies out of the inning tied. Instead, the throw got away, and the A’s took the lead without putting another ball in play.
Agnos came back out for the eighth and gave up back-to-back singles to Muncy and Bolte before getting Langeliers to line out to Johnston in right. That ended Agnos’ outing at 2.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
Brennan Bernardino replaced Agnos and got the first out he needed, striking out Kurtz on a called third strike after an ABS challenge confirmed the pitch. Butler followed with a ground-ball single to center, scoring Muncy from second and pushing Oakland’s lead to 6-4. Bernardino then struck out Soderstrom to end the inning. His line closed at 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.
The Rockies got a clean inning from Criswell, but the rest of the bullpen stretch was costly. Halvorsen gave up the back-to-back homers in the fifth, Agnos was charged with four runs across the sixth, seventh, and eighth, and Goodman’s throwing error turned a tied game into a deficit before Butler added another run in the eighth.
Rockies go quietly in the ninth
The Rockies had one final chance in the ninth, but Hogan Harris closed it quickly. Carrigg struck out swinging, Sterlin Thompson followed with another strikeout, and Brett Sullivan lined out to Butler in right field to end a 6-4 loss.
Mason Barnett earned the win for Oakland, while Agnos took the loss for Colorado. Harris picked up the save after retiring all four batters he faced.
The Rockies finished with seven hits and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, leaving four runners on base. The Athletics went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 on base, but they cashed in enough late. Oakland scored two in the fifth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh, and one in the eighth after being held scoreless through the first four innings.
Colorado got impressive moments from the call-ups. Sean Sullivan threw three scoreless innings in his major league debut, and Carrigg delivered the biggest swing of the night with a three-run homer in the sixth. Kyle Karros also had two hits and made several defensive plays at third.
But the Rockies did not finish the game cleanly. The bullpen allowed six runs after Sullivan and Jeff Criswell covered the first four innings, and the defense gave Oakland extra help. Hunter Goodman had a rough night, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and committing two errors, including the throw that gave the A’s the lead in the seventh.
The young pieces gave Colorado real moments. Sullivan’s debut was encouraging. Carrigg’s homer changed the game. But missed chances, a leaky bullpen, and one preventable defensive mistake were enough to turn those moments into another loss.
Up Next
The series continues tomorrow night in Las Vegas, where the Rockies will send Kyle Freeland to the mound for an 8:05 p.m. MDT first pitch at Las Vegas Ballpark.
Freeland is still trying to right the ship after a disastrous run of starts since returning from injury. The left-hander enters at 1-6 with a 7.87 ERA and 45 strikeouts, and Colorado badly needs him to find something closer to his usual form.
The Athletics, meanwhile, have not yet named a starter for the game.
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